Atlanta will determine the fate of an old Confederate statue that’s long sat at the foot of a Norfolk Southern office building, memorializing the railway company’s first president.
The company sold the building to real estate investment company Cousins Properties in March 2019. The company then asked the city, which owns the statue, for its immediate removal, citing concerns over its historical context.
“This monument is now deemed controversial because it was recently published that the railroad founder had served in the Confederate Calvary. Because the historical narrative has changed recently, the best plan is to store the monument until a permanent solution for displaying the monument can be determined,” states a legislation request to the City Council slated for a vote on April 19.
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The bronze statue of Samuel Spencer has stood since 1910, but it has been moved to a warehouse owned by Norfolk Southern until the city figures out a long-term plan for its preservation. It was designed by Daniel Chester French, who also created the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Norfolk Southern voluntarily agreed to hold the statue at its Lilburn warehouse, which the city said provided “significant savings” for them in storage and removal costs, according to the legislation.
Atlanta-based artist Gregor Turk said he believes such controversial symbols should be replaced with ones of people of color and women, but he added that the Spencer monument should be relocated somewhere with a “connection to railways.”
Turk said he believes there’s a way people can learn the full context of Spencer’s life contributing to the development of railways that’s not distracted by his Confederate ties.
“He’s a Confederate soldier, but that’s not why the sculpture was erected,” Turk told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was erected because he was the president of the railway.”
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Georgia lawmakers are considering bills in the state Legislature that would prohibit Confederate monuments in the state.
Similar debates on Confederate symbols are taking place across the country, particularly after George Floyd, a black man, died in Minneapolis police custody in May 2020, prompting a national reckoning on race and police tactics.
